Identity Crisis
by Mystery64
Summary: The Autobots mysteriously swap bodies and need to find the cause of it. R&R Pleezies!
1. Part 1

**Disclaimer: Do not own TF:A or any of the characters. Blinx is mine.**

**IDENTITY CRISIS**

**PART 1**

Detroit, once known as the motor city, now known as the robot city. Robots everywhere thrived and coexisted peacefully with humans, a future where everyone could get along. But even though the city changed, the crime still remained the same.

As cars waited for the red light to change, a bus from the active lane sped like a racecar causing other cars to swerve out of its way and nearly crash. The passengers on the bus screamed, cried, and prayed as the situation turned into a nightmare.

The driver had recently gotten a call from a mysterious man who said he put a bomb in the bus and it was rigged to blow if the speed dropped below 50, so the bus couldn't stop or slow down. It had been speeding around the city for an hour and a half with police trying to get the situation under control, but the media bots were not making things any easier.

Just as everyone was waiting to meet their deaths, a familiar red vehicle with a delivery truck trailer pulled up on the right side of the bus, the passengers recognized it as Optimus Prime and yelled for him to save them. The firetruck bot then linked his com to the bus radio to speak to the driver.

"Attention driver, this is Optimus Prime! We received the distress situation and we're going to help you! But in order to save everyone, you'll need to remain calm and follow my instructions!"

"Will comply!" The driver said.

"Ok, I'm going to pull my backend up to the door, when the plank drops, tell everyone to exit into the trailer in a single file line!"

As he pulled up, the trailer door dropped and turned into a plank and came into alignment with the door bottom. The driver did as he was told and in no time, all the passengers were safely in the trailer.

"Ok, everyone's off! Now what about me?" The driver said.

"We first need to get the bus away from civilians! Drive it to the docks, I'll keep at your side until you're off!"

Optimus then switched the link to Bulkhead and Ratchet, who were at the docks and were finishing setting up a big ramp at the edge of the pier.

"Bulkhead, Ratchet. Is the ramp all set?"

"It's all set to go, Prime." Ratchet said.

"Ready to launch, Bossbot." Bulkhead added.

"Alright."

Prime then switched back to the bus radio.

"Ok, now, do you have a heavy object on hand?"

"I have a cinderblock that I use to keep the bus from rolling away!" The driver answered.

"Ok, when I give the word, place the block on the accelerate pedal and exit into the trailer as quick as possible!"

As they reached the point where the ramp was in sight, the two vehicles sped down a steep road leading to the area.

"Now!" Optimus yelled.

The driver then put the block on the exact pedal and quickly stepped out of the bus and into the trailer. Prime then came to a screeching stop as the bus kept going, just as planned, it jumped off the ramp and landed far off into the water.

As the bus sank halfway, the bomb went off in a tremendous explosion, sending firey debris scattering across the area. The driver and passengers exited the trailer and cheered, some were jumping as they held each other and some were crying in relief, all happy to still be alive. Just then, Optimus got a call from Bumblebee.

"Bumblebee to Prime, come in."

"Bumblebee, did you and Prowl find the bomber?" Optimus asked."Yeah, we tracked him to a rundown warehouse. We caught him and Fanzone's arresting him now."

"Good work, mission accomplished."

At the Hooters, the customers and restaurant staff were watching the breaking news live as they went about the last couple hours, just then the happy ending part came in and everyone cheered. Blinx was just coming out of the ladies room when one of the waitresses waved her over.

"Hey, Blinx, your Autobot buddies are on! They just saved everyone on the bus and caught the bomber!"

The techno organic came over to look at the screen above the bar and saw footage of fire trucks and ambulances surrounding the docks and the survivors gratefully thanking the Autobots that were there.

"**In an amazing and heroic act, Optimus Prime and his crew saved all the passengers and the driver from the death bus without any injuries done.**"

The screen then switched to a warehouse with police cruisers outside, Captain Fanzone was leading the bomber into one of the cruisers as Prowl and Bumblebee were in the background watching.

"**Two of the Autobot members have helped the police apprehend the alleged bomber and is seen being arrested, his name has yet to be revealed or what his purpose for committing the act wa**"

Just then Bumblebee stuck his face into the camera and waved.

"**Hope you don't mind, but I want to give a shout out to my best friends Sari and Blinx. If you're watching this, we're awesome!**"

Prowl then grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the shot, Blinx just smiled and went back to work. 5:00 pm came around, Blinx's shift ended and she went to the back room to change back into her normal clothes.

She punched out and exited the restaurant, as she was unlocking her bike lock, her cell phone rang. She knew it had to be Bumblebee calling to brag about how "he" caught the scumbag bomber, she answered it and her hunch was right.

"Hello? …Hey, Bumblebee,…yeah, I saw you,…of course you did,…I'm not being sarcastic,…"

While she was occupied, Blinx was unaware of a strange round object the size of a bowling ball with a red lens rolling up to her duffle bag and creeping its way into it.

"Yeah I can get it, if the store is still open,…I'm just kidding, I know it's still open at this time,…ok, I'll see you then…bye."

Blinx then ended the call and loaded her bag onto the back rack, wondering if she had packed anything heavy in there. She then rode to the video store to pick up a movie that Bumblebee requested over the call, afterwards, she rode to the plant to see her friends. Sari was already there when Blinx arrived and everyone was watching the news about the attempted bombing.

"Hey, sis, you showed up. They're showing the rescue scenes again." The redhead said.

Blinx walked over to where the others were and saw the footage of the rescue on screen. While everyone was watching it, the object floated out of Blinx's bag and went into hiding.

"I don't get why someone would want to blow up a bus filled with people." Bulkhead said.

"Earth is full of sick and crazy, Bulkhead, this is why we have strong law enforcements." Blinx replied. "Oh, and here's your movie, Bee."

"Thanks." The yellow mech said.

For about 3 hours, the group was going about their own business as the ball waited undetected.

"Now that was awesome! I've never seen so much stuff blow up in a whole megacycle and a half." Bumblebee said after watching the recently required movie.

"No shit, who knew Bay's grandson could make explosion effects as good as he did." Blinx replied.

"Hey, Blinx. It's almost 9:00, we gotta get back to our homes." Sari said.

"Damn, I nearly forgot."

The sisters said goodnight to their friends and rode home on Blinx's bike.

"How come Sari hardly asks any of us to drive her home anymore?" Bumblebee asked out loud.

"She and Blinx are still trying to reform their bond, Bumblebee. After all, they haven't seen each other in 6 stellar cycles." Optimus said.

Soon all the bots headed to their quarters to get a good recharging. As soon as the lights went out, the ball came out of hiding and floated down the hallways, its lens constricting and dilating as it glowed red.

Optimus slowly came out of recharge the next morning, feeling a dizzy spell buzz in his processor. As his vision unblured, he realized the ceiling above him didn't look familiar. He slowly sat up and rubbed his optics, when he got a good look at his hands, a sudden shock shot through him when he saw they were yellow and black.

The severe shock caused him to fall off the berth and land hard on the floor, while trying to regain his bearings, he caught his refection in a Cybertronian sized mirror and was even more shocked to see Bumblebee staring back at him.

The realization then hit the bot like a planet sized meteor, he was no longer Optimus Prime, he was now Bumblebee. Screams then echoed in the hallway, sending cold chills through the Prime. He rushed out of the room and saw his crewmates freaking out after seeing they were not themselves.

Optimus saw himself standing with a shocked but relatively calm expression, so it had to be Prowl. Bulkhead had a very disturbed yet slightly annoyed expression, meaning it was Ratchet. Prowl was spazzing out, it was clear it was Bumblebee. Ratchet was trying not to freak out, but was reaching that point, it had to be Bulkhead. At least they could easily tell each other from another due to their voices being in the bodies they were occupying. Optimus tried to calm his teammates while trying to remain calm himself.

"What the slag's going on? Why does Prime have my body?" Bumblebee screamed.

"Please try to calm down, Prowl…I mean Bumblebee." Prime coaxed.

"Oh slag oh slag oh slag! This has gotta be a bad dream! Somebody hit me hard!"

Ratchet then hit him over the head with Bulkhead's oversized hand.

"Ow! Bulkhead!"

"I am not Bulkhead you processor damaged idiot! And you asked fer it anyway!" Ratchet said.

Prowl groaned as he watched his body freak out, something he never did, and it was just embarrassing to watch. Bulkhead was just too shocked and confused to even make a sound. Suddenly their coms beeped, breaking up the commotion. They turned them on and heard Sari on the other end.

"Hey, guys. What's up this morning?"

"Sari! For Primus' sake help us!" Bumblebee screamed.

"What's wrong? Are you under Decepticon attack?"

"No, it's way worse! I've become Prowl!"

"…Say what?"

"Uh, what Bumblebee means is, well…we have a…very confusing situation." Optimus said.

Blinx and Sari just stood with wtf looks on their faces. Minutes ago, Optimus had told them that the Autobots had somehow swapped bodies and didn't know how it happened. The info was too weird for the sisters to process and sent them into a state of shock, neither of them said a word until Blinx spoke.

"Ok, let me see if I got this right. Prowl is Optimus, Bulkhead is Ratchet, Optimus is Bumblebee, Bumblebee is Prowl, and Ratchet is Bulkhead. Right?"

The Autobots nodded.

"And none of you have the slightest clue how it happened."

"No, we just woke up like this." Prowl said.

The sisters were just plain stumped, this was indeed a very confusing problem.

"Then I don't know what to do." Blinx sighed."But there must be some explanation as to how it happened." Bulkhead said.

"Like what?" Bumblebee asked.

"Maybe one of Professor Sumdac's inventions went wrong and blasted us from his lab."

"I highly doubt it, Ratch…Bulkhead, dad would have said something if he was building a device that could switch minds, and I would have heard an explosion if it did blast you." Sari said.

"Then unless we know the cause, I'm afraid we're all stuck like this." Optimus said.

"What? I can't be stuck as Prowl! I'm Bumblebee, the fastest bot on wheels, not some ninja dropout! My reputation is so ruined!" Bumblebee yelled.

"Your reputation? You're the one who's making me look like I'm crazy." Prowl said, trying not to lose his temper.

"I feel your pain, little buddy. I don't want to be stuck as a geezerbot either." Bulkhead said.

"What'd you say?" Ratchet angrily snapped.

Soon the bots started arguing up a storm, Optimus tried to calm them down, but to no avail. Blinx and Sari just stood there looking like complete idiots as they watched them bite off each other's heads. After 30 seconds, Blinx started to get pissed off, this was getting ridiculous.

"All of you shut the hell up before I break your heads in with the couch!" She screamed.

The room then fell silent as the Autobots stopped arguing and stared wide-eyed and slightly scared at the blue haired girl.

"Listen, I know this is very weird and kind of a shock, but there's no need to act like bat shit crazy morons. For god's sake, act like Autobots."

"Blinx is right, we need to pull ourselves together and keep a calm level. We'll find a way to fix this somehow." Optimus said.

A sudden beeping soon brought their attentions to the main computer, meaning there was a serious emergency. A 4 alarm fire had broken out in a business building and there were people in danger.

"There's a fire, those people need help." Optimus said.

"How are we gonna help them in this condition?" Bumblebee asked.

"We're just going to have to deal with it and do our job like always, Bumblebee. Transform and rollout!"

Luckily they could still transform easily, Bumblebee however fell over right after going into vehicle mode because he was not use to being on two wheels. He transformed into bot mode and tried again, this time getting it right when he revved his wheels. All the bots then headed off to take care of the emergency, leaving the sisters in the dust.

"This is gonna be a disaster, isn't it?" Blinx asked.

"Not as much as it already is." Sari replied.

Bystanders watched in sheer horror as the trapped people in the burning building screamed for someone to save them. Dozens of firefighters were doing all they could to control the blaze, but were running out of time to save people.

Suddenly someone saw the Autobots coming and everyone cheered. The bots came to a stop and transformed into bot mode then ran into the burning building. They shielded their faces as the hot ambers flew at them, the whole lobby was in a blaze and being reduced to a charred hell.

"How do we get past the fire?" Bulkhead said.

"Right now, Prowl is the only one who can clear a path for us!" Optimus replied. "Prowl, get this fire under control!"

Prowl nodded and aimed for the fire, but bolos came out instead of foam and burst into flames when they landed in the fire.

"I don't know how to use the fire extinguishers!"

"You have to select it!" Optimus told him.

"How?"

"By thinking it!"

Now the ninjabot felt stupid for asking, he should've known it would be that simple. He selected it and tried again, but nothing came out. Wondering what he did wrong this time, Prowl looked into the aimer and tapped it, a sudden burst of foam then exploded all over his face.

"I know we have a dangerous fire to be serious about, but I just can't help in finding how funny that was!" Bumblebee said.

Everyone shot him daggers of death looks, shutting him up. Prowl wiped the foam from his face and tried again once more, this time getting it right. The Autobots began to make their way to the upper levels of the building where the people were trapped while trying not to get torched themselves. After rounding up the people, they needed to find a way to shield them from the falling ceiling parts, and they had to think fast cuz the building would collapse at any minute.

"What now?" Bumblebee asked.

"Bulkhead will have to use Ratchet's magnets to make an overhead barrier!" Optimus replied.

"How?" Bulkhead asked.

"You havta focus its energy on a single object!" Ratchet told him.

Bulkhead tried to levitate a large slate of sheet metal, but couldn't get it right, even after 3 more tries. Ratchet got annoyed and grabbed the metal himself, the people gathered under him as he held it over his head. They all made their way down the floors and escaped the building before it finally collapsed.

Medical personnel rushed to give any needed aid to the survivors as the firefighters regained control of the fire. The media personnel rushed in to get some shots of the Autobots, only to realize they were already gone.

**To be Continued…**


	2. Part 2

**Disclaimer: See previous page for that.**

**PART 2**

The Autobots stood in a straight line as Sari and Blinx hosed the soot and scorch marks off them with the power washer, each still feeling very awkward occupying each others bodies. Of all the strange and bizarre things that they have faced, they just found this as the one to top them all.

"Well on the plus side, you guys saved their lives." Blinx said.

"Yeah, but it was still a humiliatin experience." Ratchet grumbled.

"But I tell ya, those people were so scared, I don't think they noticed we were acting abnormal." Bulkhead said.

"Dammit, would you all hold still, we're almost done." Blinx said.

After the wash down was finished, they all went into the base to further discuss the situation.

"Did you two find a connection to our condition?" Optimus asked the girls.

"Well, we asked dad if he was building a device that could switch minds, he said he wasn't building anything that could do that." Sari said

"Not that he knew of anyway." Blinx added."But there must be someway to get our bodies back. Cant Ratchet whip up some ray gun that can switch us back?" Bumblebee said.

"It would be impossible, kid, I'd need the information about the technology in order to do so." Ratchet said.

"And we still don't have a lead to what caused this." Prowl added.

Bumblebee just hung his head low in defeat, as did the rest of the bots. Suddenly a thought came to Sari that could solve this mystery in a pinch.

"Hey, I just realized something. You guys were like this when you woke up. Right?"

"Yeah. What's yer point?" Ratchet replied.

"Hey, I just realized it too. If this is how you woke up, it's just possible that this whole mess occurred last night." Blinx said.

The others then realized that the girls could be onto something.

"We'd better check the security monitors." Optimus suggested.

They began to check the video data from the cameras' mainframe for anything suspicious, just at 9:10 time mark, a dark object moved across the screen.

"Whoa, what was that?" Bumblebee asked.

"Looked like some round shadow." Bulkhead said.

The screen then switched to a view of bumblebee's door just as the thing was going in, a light flashed and the object exited the room.

"Uh, what did it do just now?" Sari asked.

"Probably what we're hoping it did." Optimus said. "Ratchet, rewind the image and pause it at the 11 cycle mark."

The medbot did so despite having 3 large fingers on each hand to work the panel, just as the object left Bumblebee's room, the video was paused.

"Now can you enhance the object?"

Ratchet did so and soon a clear 3d image of the object appeared on the screen. It looked to be a bowling ball sized orb colored cool grey and had a camera like lens colored red.

"What in spark's name is that?" Bulkhead said.

"Is it a Decepticon or a Con weapon?" Bumblebee asked.

"It can't be that, Bumblebee. If it was, it would have the insignia on it somewhere." Blinx said.

And she should know. Blinx had been warned about the Decepticons, she was told that they were no good and wanted nothing more than to harm others for their own evil ways. She was also given useful tips on how to spot a Decepticon, even in vehicle mode.

Their disguises would be aircrafts, they would be purple or any other dark color, have red colored optics, and the Decepticon insignia. The orb was not an aircraft nor did it have the insignia.

"Well, whatever it is, it appears to be the one causin all the trouble." Ratchet said.

"Then it looks like we have our culprit, now all we have to do is find it." Optimus said.

"Find it how? It could be anywhere in the city." Bumblebee said.

"We'll have to split up into three groups and search in different parts of the city. Since our team is odd numbered, Blinx and Sari will have to pair up with Bumblebee. We'll meet up in old Detroit in 4 megacycles. Autobots, roll out!"

They transformed into vehicle mode and drove off, but Bumblebee again fell over as soon as he went into cycle mode.

"I hate being Prowl." He muttered.

Blinx helped him up and got on, keeping one foot on the floor to keep him upright. As soon as Sari hopped on, Bumblebee revved up his wheels and took off as soon as Blinx took her foot off the floor.

Optimus and Ratchet took the North and West parts of the city, Prowl and Bulkhead took the South and East parts, and Bumblebee, Sari, and Blinx took the middle. After hours of searching, they all met up in old Detroit, completely empty-handed.

"Autobots, report." Optimus said.

"We got nothing, Bossbot." Bulkhead said.

"Jack squat for us." Blinx said.

"(sigh) We've come up empty-handed as well." Optimus said in defeat.

"We've searched every corner of the area and found no trace of that orb." Ratchet said.

"But we have to find it, we just have to. I mean, how hard is it to spot a floating bowling ball anywhere?" Bumblebee whined.

Suddenly something grey swooped down and hit Blinx in the back of the head."Ow! Goddamn son of a bitch!" She screamed in pain.

Everyone looked up and saw the orb hovering above them, its lens glowing blood red and its whole form vibrating like crazy.

"Well, good news is it came to us." Bulkhead said.

"Bad news is it looks like it's about to go crazy on us!" Sari added.

With that, the orb began to bounce everywhere and attack the Autobots in a crazed frenzy. The bots scattered all willy-nilly, trying to catch the orb with no success, not even Prowl's ninja skills could catch it. Just then it hovered over Sari and Blinx and a ray appeared out from the top.

"Blinx, Sari! Look out!" Optimus yelled.

But it was too late, the ray shot a beam of red light that enveloped the girls and faded in 3 seconds. Blinx and Sari looked over themselves to find that they had not switched with each other.

"Huh? Nothing happened?" Sari questioned.

"Well that was weird." Blinx said.

The orb suddenly began to shake violently then propel itself into buildings and bounce attacking the bots.

"This thing is outta control!" Ratchet yelled.

"We have to catch it, it's the only thing that can return us to our normal bodies!" Optimus said.

"How can we if it won't hold still?" Bumblebee asked.

Suddenly a garbage bag was thrown over the orb, the Autobots looked to see Sari struggling to restrain the trapped object in the bag. Blinx then whacked the bag with a steel pipe seven times before the orb dropped to the ground and stopped moving.

"Payback for hitting me in the head, bitch!" She yelled at the bag.

Later at the base, Ratchet scanned over the circuitry of the contained orb, looking for the solution to the problem.

"Well, Ratchet. Is there anything that you can tell us about this thing?" Optimus asked him.

"Well it's a little complicated, but apparently the orb's weapon is capable of swapping the processors of machines through concentrated satellite energy." The medbot explained.

"If it can do that, then why didn't it affect me and Sari? Aren't we both robots?" Blinx questioned.

"Yes, but you're also organic. It seems that the energy doesn't work on organics, since you both are half organic, the effects of the weapon were blocked out."

"And is there anyway to reverse the swap?" Bumblebee asked.

"Would you be patient, I'm workin' on it." Ratchet replied rudely.

Blinx scanned her eyes over the chained up orb, if Ratchet hadn't found the answer yet, there must've been something he had missed. As she looked it over, she noticed a small door on its backend, she opened it and found a small blue button inside.

Blinx knew she shouldn't press it without proper knowledge of it, but didn't think that as her finger pressed it. A green beam suddenly shot out of the lens and hit Optimus and Bumblebee, causing them to yell out.

"Agh! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" The blue haired girl yelled frantically.

When the light faded, the two bots looked at each other in surprise. The yellow form looked over himself and a wide grin spread across his face.

"Woohoo! I'm my good ol' speedy self again!" Bumblebee cheered, clearly back in his own body.

"Blinx, I think you found the reverse button." Sari said to her sister.

"Oh phew, I thought I did something wrong there for a second." Blinx replied relieved.

And then after a few seconds, all the Autobots were back in their correct bodies.

"Now that's more like it." Ratchet said.

"I agree." Prowl added.

"It's good to be back where I belong." Bulkhead said.

"I couldn't agree with you more, Bulkhead." Optimus replied. "Now there's a matter of figuring out what to do with our little troublemaker."

Suddenly the orb began to violently shake in its chained restraints as its lens glowed redder than before. The violent vibrating then broke the chains, setting the orb free to go berserk. But before it could do anything, Ratchet fired his EMP on it, taking it out of commission.

"Good question, Prime. What are we gonna do with it?" Sari asked.

Later at a cliff somewhere, the Autobots stood by as Blinx and Sari put a concrete block and the orb into a burlap sack.

"We'd better tie it up good, sis, we don't want this freaky bowling ball knock-off to come back." Blinx said.

"No kidding." Sari replied.

After tying up the sack, they went over to the cliff's edge and tossed it away, everyone watched as it plunged into the sea and sank into the abyss.

"You think there's a chance it'll come back?" Bumblebee questioned.

"Let's hope for Primus' sake it doesn't." Prowl replied.

"Agreed, Prowl. I've had enough weirdness to last a million stellar cycles, let alone one day." Optimus said.

With that, they all headed on home. At the bottom of the watery abyss, a red light in the sack started to flicker and blink, indicating that the orb was still functioning.

**End?**


End file.
